Honkai: You're telling me this difficulty is from Honkai Impact 3?!

Shu's sudden, anguished cry wasn't suppressed. It startled Kiana, who quickly rushed forward and clamped her hand over his mouth and nose.

Shu's voice was muffled, reduced to a low whine.

Kiana nervously glanced around and listened intently.

Hearing nothing unusual, she breathed a sigh of relief, then looked regretfully at the food she'd dropped in her haste.

Among it was her favorite mini cake... the kind she rarely indulged in, even before the Honkai Eruption.

As Kiana wistfully recalled the cake's delicious flavor, the person beneath her hand began to struggle violently.

Kiana's hand wasn't large, but it was just big enough to cover all three breathing orifices.

I can't breathe!! Shu thought desperately.

Kiana glanced back and, seeing Shu's face turning red, quickly realized her mistake and released him.

"Saved!! Gasp... wheeze..." Shu, who had been on the verge of hearing only his own heartbeat, finally regained the right to breathe. The moment Kiana's hand shifted even slightly, he took a huge gulp of air, so forceful that Kiana could feel the suction.

To Shu, the air tasted sweeter than anything after that near-death experience!

Honkai? Zombies? Dead-ites? None of it mattered!

At least he was still alive!

Shu calmed down instantly, slowly exhaling the large breath he'd taken.

Seeing that he wasn't freaking out anymore, Kiana also relaxed, then hurried back to where she'd dropped the food, crouching down to assess the damage to her precious cake.

After a few more deep breaths, Shu turned his attention back to Kiana.

The situation wasn't entirely hopeless. Honkai was terrifying, but there was always a glimmer of hope. With the right moves, even in Honkai Gakuen...

No, no, scratch that. Honkai 2 is a no-go. With my noodle arms and legs, I wouldn't last a second in that environment.

"Um... Kiana?" Shu felt it necessary to figure out what kind of world he was in before fully integrating into it, so he decided to question the apparent "protagonist of the world."

"Huh?" Kiana looked back, holding a half-smashed cake, her clear blue eyes filled with pure, unadulterated... cluelessness, which quickly morphed into suspicion. "Wait, I don't think I've seen you before. Why do you know my name?"

Kiana narrowed her eyes, scrutinizing Shu, before her expression suddenly shifted to one of realization.

Even Shu's cerebellum knew she wasn't about to say anything good.

"Don't tell me you're... a creepy stalker with a secret crush on me?!"

Shu: "..."

Having reached this conclusion, Kiana puffed out her chest and tilted her nose up haughtily. "Hmph, I wasn't wearing a name tag. There's no way you could have seen my name, so you must have planned this!

"Tell me! How long have you been following me? Do you have... incriminating photos of me?" Kiana's eyes darted around, as if searching for a camera.

Shu stared at her with deadpan eyes.

I knew you weren't going to say anything sensible…

But in a way… she's right?

"Stop looking, it's not what you think." Seeing that she was about to start frisking him, Shu quickly interrupted her and began his bluff.

"Isn't it easy to find out your name? The illustrious Kiana Kaslana." Shu lowered his voice and his head, letting his bangs cover his eyes while peeking through the gaps to observe her reactions.

Given his current predicament – she was the knife, he was the fish – boosting his own mystique was crucial.

As for whether it would make her wary of him... ha, this was Kiana! A true Kaslana wouldn't hurt a defenseless person like him, would she?

This wasn't Otto, after all.

"Huh?" Kiana looked puzzled.

"I'm with Anti-Entropy. We've been keeping tabs on you for quite some time. I didn't expect to run into you while investigating this Honkai incident." Shu let out a couple of dry chuckles, then continued in a calm, measured tone.

"Huh?" Kiana's confusion deepened.

"You should be glad I'm just a desk jockey, otherwise..." Shu stopped mid-sentence, a sense of unease washing over him. "What's with that expression?"

Kiana tilted her head. "Anti-Entropy... what's that? Are you... like, in a gang or something?"

"Huh?" Shu lifted his head, completely bewildered.

"You don't know Anti-Entropy?"

Kiana frowned, looking genuinely perplexed, and shook her head.

Shu's head began to pound.

Kiana didn't know Anti-Entropy? That's impossible! Was his memory faulty?

"Then… you must know Schicksal, right?" Shu asked tentatively.

Kiana furrowed her brow, her lips forming a pout, and shook her head again.

Shu felt like he'd been struck by lightning.

This script is all wrong! There's no way Kiana doesn't know Schicksal!

"Wait! You really don't know Schicksal?" Shu asked again in disbelief. The confusion on Kiana's face intensified, and she shook her head once more.

"Then what about Honkai? You must know about Honkai!" Shu was getting desperate. "Do you know why this city is like this? It's because of Honkai! You don't even know about Honkai?!"

Kiana shook her head yet again, then spoke hesitantly, "You're saying those zombies in the city are caused by... Honkai? But it's not just this city that's like this..."

"Not just this city?" Despite his panic, Shu caught the crucial detail in her words. "Not just this city means..."

"Yeah, about a month ago…" Kiana tapped her temple, trying to remember. "When the Great Disaster first hit, the news said it was a global catastrophe. Something like 70% of the population died. But I haven't seen any news since then, so I don't really know what's going on..."

Shu's mind went blank.

No Schicksal, no Anti-Entropy, and Kiana didn't even know about Honkai.

Could this be some bizarre Imaginary Space, or had he stumbled into a completely different timeline?

A global Honkai Eruption... or even just a global zombie crisis, that was hell mode difficulty for him!

First time crossing over, no experience, where's my cheat ability?!